Monday, August 29, 2016

Gloria Greenfield – formerly Gloria Jean Woods – is
suspected of murdering four of her own babies, although evidence was only
sufficient to try her for two homicides. The only child born to the Woods
couple to survive was the child who was given the name of her mother, Gloria.

The original coroner reports stated that all had died of
SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), a controversial non-diagnosis diagnosis,
which in reality translated to “I don’t know what killed the child but I need
some sort of label anyway.”

A reexamination of the four deaths resulted in a
determination that the originally recorded of cause of death was only
justified for one of the deaths, that of Joseph (2 months), who is thought to
have died of pneumonia. Another, 28-day old Melissa, was ruled “undetermined.
The new cause of death ruling was asphyxia for the other two: Theodore Woods
(17 days), on Feb. 8, 1970 and Regina Woods (15 days), who died Mar. 5, 1971.

In 2000 her surviving daughter, Gloria Bennight, became
suspicious and ordered death records on her dead siblings. Gloria had herself,
when she was an infant, stopped breathing on two occasions – when 44 days and
80 days old – and was rushed to the hospital. Officials noted Bennight’s
unusual request and in turn began investigating.

On Febrary 4, 2002, Gloria Greenfield, 53 years old, pleaded
not guilty at her arraignment, yet on March 22 changed her plea at a subsequent
hearing to guilty in a plea deal allowing the dismissal of one homicide charge:
the March 9, 1969 death of Melissa Woods (28 days old). The prosecuting
attorney stated the apparent motive was insurance payoffs:$2,000 to $3,000 for each baby.

Gloria Bennight wept at the hearing and read a statement
directed to her mother, saying: “You’re still my mom, I love you with all my
heat and soul.”

Greenfield was sentenced to 1-20 years in prison, allowing
parole as early as 10 months.

Nurse Irene Becker – who tended to seriously ill patients in
the cardiology ward of Charité hospital in Berlin, Europe’s biggest university
hospital – liked to play God. Many of her patients had, even with the best of
care, not long to live. But with the kind of care Becker offered to her chosen
targets their days were ended abruptly, according to Becker’s whim.

The nurse’s boss and coworkers, even though they knew she
abused patients and that suspicious deaths occurred when she was around, let
her get away with it. But with the worst of care, the sort provided by Nurse
Becker, their days were cut short abruptly. Following the investigation of 15
deaths of patients associated with Becker, Hospital Director Gert Baumann “came
in for manifold criticism throughout the trial for failing to raise the alarm
earlier.”

At the murder trial Presiding Judge Gert Faust harshly
criticized the hospital governors and nurses for failing to report abuse and
irregularities surrounding Becker’s patients. Her method was to inject her
victims with an overdose of antihypertensive or sedative drugs that she would
administer even while physicians were busy with efforts to revive the patient.

Becker was tried in April 2007 for the murder of six people
and the attempted murder of two others between June 2005 and October 2006. Her
motive was unclear. Becker eventually confessed that she killed four patients
and asserted she did so out of sympathy, only wanting to relieve pain. “I acted
in the interests of my patients,” she testified early in the trial. “I acted
according to their wishes.”

The court found this explanation implausible and rejected
the notion that patients requested to be euthanized by her. “State prosecutor
Thorsten Neudeck alleged the nurse had given one male patient a lethal
injection in 2005 simply because she was angry that he would not calm down.” In
another case, the husband was in the room when Becker gave his wife the deadly
injection. He testified that if he had known what was in store for his wife he
would have slapped the nurse’s hand away.”

Becker, 54,was
convicted of five murders on June 29, 2007 and sentenced to life in prison.

Kelly Marie Cochran, 33, of Indiana is charged with two
murders in two states. Investigation continues. In Crystal Falls, Michigan the
Iron County prosecuting attorney, Melissa Powell, has filed court papers noting
that other possible murders are to be investigated. Powell stated that Cochran
has "claimed responsibility for the deaths of other individuals, which, if
true, make her a serial killer." She is currently held in Michigan in the
Iron County Jail on a $5 million cash bond, charged with six felonies,
including murder.She was captured in
Kentucky and voluntarily extradited to Michigan to face charges. There
she is charged with:

-Homicide, open murder for the death of Christopher Karl
Regan
-Second-degree home invasion
-Conspiracy to commit dead bodies – disinterment & mutilation
-Concealing the death of an individual
-Lying to a police officer
-Accessory after the fact to a felony

Investigators believe that Corcoran, together with the
husband, had plotted a staged “caught in the act” murder of her 53-old
boyfriend, Christopher Regan. On October 13, 2014, she lured Regan with a
promise of sex and Jason Cochran, 37, shot the man in the head with a .22
shotgun. Husband Jason, using an electric hand saw, cut up the body. They put
the remains in trash bags and drove to the Iron River where in the woods they
distributed the bags. Police recovered from the woods “a human skull with an
apparent bullet hole, bones and bone fragments. Police also recovered a .22
caliber rifle, a .22 caliber bullet, and a pair of glasses.”

Following her April 18 arrest in Kentucky where she had fled,
Cochran was “interrogated by both Michigan and Indiana police for almost 70
hours.” Cochran confessed to murdering her husband. She injected him with
heroin and then choked him to death. He was dead in under 60 seconds. She told
police "I still hate him (her husband), and yes, it was revenge. I evened
the score,” referencing the earlier murder, which she apparently later
regretted. She added that before Regen was killed she had considered dropping
the plan and killing her husband instead.

Investigation
may or not substantiate Ms. Cochran’s allusion
to previous murders at her hand. One should note that Miranda Barbour of
Pennsylvania, who committed a murder on November 11, 2013, made a
grandiose
confession to having previously murdered at least 22 others. But the
claim,
after investigation, was discredited.

[Robert St. Estephe]

***

Kelly Marie Cochran, 33, “of Merrillville, Indiana.”

Earlier crimes – "claimed responsibility for the deaths
of other individuals, which, if true, make her a serial killer."

Feb. 20, 2016 – Jason Cochran, 37, murdered, Hobart, Indiana; “asphyxia due to strangulation that was complicated by heroin
intoxication.” Found dead Feb. 20. “Cochran confessed to killing Jason
Cochran, her husband of 13 years. Cochran told police she delivered an overdose
of heroin to her husband on Feb. 20, and put her hands on his neck, nose and
mouth. According to reports, Cochran told police he died less than a minute
later.”

Mar. 15, 2015 – “When police searched her home with the FBI
in March, 2015, they found nothing.”

Apr. 2016 – “According to the document, Cochran has an
alleged prior mental health history, which includes a voluntary admission to a
psychiatric facility in Indiana a month ago [in April, 2016].”

Apr. 26, 2016 – “According to the Post-Tribune, Cochran fled
Northwest Indiana without telling family members on April 26, about nine weeks
after her husband's death and around the time Michigan authorities charged her
in Regan's death.”

Apr. 28, 2016 – arrested in Wingo, Kentucky, where she had
fled from Hobart, Ind.

Apr. 29, 2016 – “Following her arrest in Kentucky, Cochran
spoke with police on April 29 and provided details in the killing of Regan and
directed them to recovery of evidence in the case.”

May 3, 2016 – Graves County Jail in Mayfield, Kentucky;
Cochran signed extradition papers that will bring her from Mayfield, Graves
County, Kentucky to Crystal Falls, Iron County, Michigan.

May 16, 2016 – arrived in Mi. on extradition; formally
charged in Iron County, Mi. Pleased not guilty.

May 23, 2016 – “During a May 23 interview with Hobart
Detective Jeremy Ogden, Cochran said she blamed her husband for taking
"the only good thing I had in my life," court records state. "I
still hate him (her husband), and yes, it was revenge. I evened the score,"
records quote her as saying.”

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Antonie Staskova is a chronic child abuser. Two of her sons died
before they reached the age of one – Radek in 1989 and David in 1992.Though one of the boys had a broken rib and arm the
official cause of death was given as accidental suffocation. After the brutal
2007 murder by stabbing of her 5-year-old son, Honzíka
Rokos, the earlier investigations were reopened by the regional
prosecutor’s office. Another abused child, Stašková,
was removed from Antoine’s custody and raised by the girl’s grandmother,

• Parental kidnapping.

On May 27, 2007, the boy’s father,
Roman Rokos, dropped of the child with the mother and her boyfriend, Paul
Grepl. The trio then disappeared. The frantic father went through all the
proper legal channels to get help in finding and retrieving his boy. In August
police began searching for the missing boy. By December 5 an “extraordinary”
search was launched. It was only four days later that his mother murdered him.
It is believed she was motivated by hatred for the child’s father.

• Murder of Honzíka Rokos

It was a bizarre murder. Antonie was
dominant and easily manipulated the emotionally dependant boyfriend, Paul
Grepl. She told him she wanted to kidnap her son and kill him and herself. This
was in May, seven months before the murder. Boyfriend was put to work to help
Antonie in her project. Paul dutifully prepared by digging a grave in Moravia,
then he dug another in Usti nad Labem, and then it seemed necessary to change
locations and did yet another in the same town.

On December 7 they took the child
to one of the prepared pits. According to Paul, whom the prosecutors believed,
Antonine injected her son’s right forearm injection of air and then took her knife
stabbed him twice. Then she began to suffocate him. They removed the
boy, who despite the grotesque attacks was still alive. It is estimated that the
boy, writing in excruciating pain, live two or three hours longer.

Paul Gepl, at trial, described a hellish
scene. The mother down in the pit Paul had dug for the purpose, held the child,
talking to him holding his hand while she stabbing him over a period of “tens
of minutes.” He said to his torturer: “Mother do not worry, I will not die.”
After a while she lifted the child from the intended grave and deposited him in
the backseat of her car. The boy wailed and moaned that it hurts.Paul, ever helpful, clapped his hand to his mouth to keep him
quiet.

The prosecutor described Atonine
and Paul’s conduct as a display of utter cynicism and disrespect for life.“They sat in their car while behind them the child
died. He wailed and moaned, and although now she claims to love him, no one did
nothing to save him,” she said.

It was a routine random police check of parked cars that led
to the discovery of the murder. The boy was dead when they found him.

• Trial

At the trial Antonine denied she did
the deed. She admitted only that boys inserted the syringe with air into the
boy’s arm, claiming she did not hit a vein.

Antonie Stašková and Paul Grepl sat
quietly throughout the trial.Grepl stared
into the country and Stašková bit her lip.

The pair blamed the boy’s father for
their crime, harboring the belief that he would have kept the mother from her
child. Paul claimed he loved the boy as his own son.

On August 11, 2008 Antonie Stašková maintained her
innocence, yetwas convicted of murder
and sentenced to 24 years in prison.Pavel Grepl pleaded guilty to suffocation and
received a sentence of 20 years.

1992 – David (younger than 12 mo), choked. Suspected murder.
One of the two boys had a broken arm.

May 25, 2007 – parental kidnapping; Roman Rokos
handed a five-year son’s wife that he should have for the weekend.Since then he is seen him.

Jun. 4, 2007 – The court issued a preliminary injunction according to which Jan
Rokos should be entrusted to the care of his father.Jul. 22,
2007 – Roman Rokos visited the police in Kynzvart and demanded his son,
who was, according to his information the mother.Jul. 23,
2007 – Antonie Stašková his son visited Kynžvart police claiming they
no longer hadf the boy.Aug.
2007 – Police launched a search after Jan Rokos.

Finnish Wikipedia (loose translation): Aino Annikki Gretel Nykopp-Koski
(b. 1950 ) is a Finnish serial killer nurse who assaulted, attempted to murder
and murdered murdered a number of her patients in 2004-2009. Previous to her
arrest for the series murders and other crimes, Nykopp-Koski had been convicted of theft of drugs and the property of her
patients. The crimes took place in hospitals, care centers and in the patients
own homes.

Police began investigating Nykopp in March 2009 after the one of
her patients, a 80-year-old woman, was nearly killed by poisoned yogurt. She
was saved by doctors at The victim of an old woman were rescued Mary's Hospital
(Marian sairaalassa). Investigation of
this poisoning led police to evidence of a long series of similar poisonings of
patients under Nykopp’s
care.Nykopp denied responsibility for
the poisonings which in a number of cases resulted in death. She tried to
attribute the deaths to the patients’ having mistakenly, or deliberately,
overdosed themselves but police did not accept her story and placed her under
arrest. An extensive investigation resulted in multiple charges of murder,
attempted murder, aggravated assault, theft and drug violations.

On May 14, 2010 Nykopp was found guilty by The
Helsinki District Court of five murders, six attempted murders and two counts
of aggravated assault. The court ordered a psychological examination in order
to make a proper sentence decision. “Psychiatric examinations concluded
in November the nurse fully understood the consequences of her actions even
though she suffered from [an antisocial] personality disorder, and could thus
be deemed responsible for the murders.” On December 22,
2010, Helsinki District Court sentenced her to life imprisonment. Nykopp
appealed in 20011 and on March29, 2012
the Helsinki Court of Appeal upheld the rulings.

Friday, August 26, 2016

For over a year in 2001-2002 Czech serial killer couple Dana Stodolová (29) and
husband Jaroslav Stodolová (33) preyed upon
elderly neighbors and other old folks they take short trips to find. They were
after money but often found it convenient to murder those they stole from. They
murdered at least six though strangling, smothering or stabbing to death. One
of the murders was committed by Dana on her own in which she stabbed her
victim,Mary Čondlovou (78) of Henry
Hradec, to death.

They were arrested Feb. 3, 2003 for a robbery and confessed to the
theft. The stolen goods turned over to police tied the couple to other crimes,
robberies in volving murder, and their series of robbery-killings was able to
be reconstructed. They were convicted on April 26, 2004 and sentenced to life
imprisonment.

Following is a resume of their crimes:

• On September 30, 2001, the masked duo robbed Alois Miškovského (77) of
Chabeřice of 160 crowns. They left the victim tied up. He was not found for two
days and died less than a year following the attack.

• November 16, 2001, staying with Dana’s mother in Slavošov, they robbed a
neighbor Jaroslava Šanda (75). The retrieved 40,000 crowns but the victim
managed to pull the nylon stocking from Jaroslav face. Jaroslav
strangled him to death so he would not be identified. They put the body in bed
and surrounded it with lighted candle as a way of burning the house in a delayed
manner. The autopsy was faulty and missed signs of strangulation.

• November 28, 2001: Another neighbor, Růženy Skohoutilové (68) was robbed
of jewels and 50,000 crowns cash by the couple. The victim was asphyxiated with
a scarf and pillows and buried the body buried in the garden, along with
several documents and articles of daily use that they thought, by their
absence, would create the impression that the woman had traveled somewhere.
About 6 months later her son in law was constructing green houses he discovered
the body. Police erroneously attributed the crime to a trio who had recently
committed another murder.

• April 30, 2002: In the village Měchonice they attacked Antonína
(66) and Mary Krále (62). They
strangled their victims and turned on the stove’s gas so that the deaths would
be thought accidental asphyxiation. Autopsies failed to note strangulation.

• August 11, 2002: In Chabeřice the pair broke into the home of Růženy (78)
and Václav (85) Hromasových, who were known to the criminals because they had
in the part lent them money. They tied the woman up and Dana began to strangle
her with a towel and panties, which picked up a clothesline. The husband was
awakened and Dana, holding a knife, threatened to kill his wife unless he told
them where their money was. The made of with 21,000 crowns. They left the
victims alive.

• September 14, 2002:Dana committed
a murder on her own in Henry Hradec. She expressed in terest in finding a job
and a place to stay. She won tthe confidence of Mary Čondlovou (78), and was
allowed to stay in her home. The following day when her benefactor came home
Dana attacked her and tied her to a chair, demanding money. When Čondlová
refused, Dana gagged the woman, struck her twice on the head with a rolling pin
[?] and then stabbed four times in the chest with her knife.

• October 28, 2002:in Slavošov the
attacked Joseph Malin (81), who lived in the house opposite them.Malina had often
publicly boasted that he had saved a large sum of money. The knocked on
his door and Jaroslav stunned him with a sharp blow to
the head knocking him down. They then attempted to hang the victim from the
rafters using a telephone cable, but it snapped. They attempted the procedure
again with success. The intention was to simulate suicide. They made off with 2
million crowns [?]. Investigators classified the death as suicide.

• December 2, 2002, the Stodolovás
broke into the home of Bozena Cerháková (92) and his daughter Helen (52) in
Brněnec and another
daughter who was visiting, Dagmar Weiss (62). The
couple had heard Helena was preparing to buy a house so they assumed she was
flush with cash. After they forced Helen to reveal where the money was hidden
the killing began. Dagmar [?] was strangled with a scarf. Bozena was smothered
with a pillow but not completely. Helen was strangled in the bathtub. Dana
sliced the woman’s writs to simulate suicide. The intention was to set the
scene of a deadly family quarrel ending in the suicide of the killer.Bozena survived the attack, and but offered police a
disjointed testimony, in which he identified only Jaroslav.Jaroslav was questioned but did not confess and there was a
lack of evidence.

• February 3, 2003: They robbed a rich retiree, Joseph Peroutka (78) in
Onšovec. Jaroslav asked the man for some water for a pregnant wife whom he said
had fainted. The
robbers locked their victim in the basement and rushed their search, found no
money, and left with only a stolen mobile phone and
some sweets. The old man was found and freed by police the following day. The
officer already know the couple and was able to be confident they were the
culprits. He charged them with the robbery. The stolen goods they turned over
provided evidence tying them to the double murder in Brněnec. Eventually they confessed
to the series of robberies and murders outlined here.

Note: Effort has been made to accurately convey the facts based on the
Czech Wikipedia entry on the case. Please notify us if errors are detected.

On October 2, 1988, Sylvie Coulon, a French pediatric nurse
aid, pregnant at the time, was called in by the Limoges police for questioning.
They had been tipped off four months earlier by an anonymous phone call to
Coulon’s four-year long habit of getting pregnant and yet never seeming to have
a baby to be show for her efforts. She confessed to killing newborns in 1984,
1985, 1986 and early 1988. Coulon told the prosecutor she did the deeds because
she was ''alone and broke.'' She also said that though she was pregnant a
fifth time she wanted to allow the child to live. On March 12, 1988 Sylvie
Coulon, 27, was convicted to 12 years in prison for killing four of her new
born babies.

Michele Kalina, 44, of Reading, Pennsylvania, did not just have a skeleton in the closet, she had five of them and 19-year-old daughter Elizabeth discovered them. Mom had always warned Elizabeth and her dad Jeffrey to stay away from the closet and for two years she did. But one day in July 2010 she looked in and then decided it needed to be cleaned out. What she found shocked her and she called police. Elizabeth told them she had found human remains in a cooler.

“Officers arrived, but told Elizabeth and her dad, Jeffrey Kalina, that these were not human remains. So the cops left and the Kalinas threw them in the trash.” But that evening father and daughter found more, three “suspicious” containers, one of which was filled to the top with cement. “

A week later police searched the apartment again, this time finding bones in a plastic bag and a letter Jeffrey’s wife Michelle had written to her boyfriend seven years before, saying she’d had a baby girl in 2003, but that she’d given it to the Catholic church for adoption.”

X-ray examination showed that the cement encased “an unknown mass”; it turns out the mass was the remains of a baby. August 8 was the day that the bones were determined to be human and Michele Kalina was arrested. She was with charged with two counts of abuse of a corpse and held on $5 million bail.

Investigation showed that the children were the product of a 14-year-long affair. The married couple had not been intimate since 1992. Six times between 1996 and 2000 Michele managed to explain away her weight gain – convincing husband, daughter and boyfriend (a co-worker) her heftiness was not the result of pregnancy. claiming she had a cyst on her fallopian tubes. Yet she had Michelle gave birth to the five babies between 1996 and 2000. Then she either killed them or allowed them to die, keeping their remains in her family’s apartment. In actuality Michele had given birth to six of the man’s children -- three boys, and two girl, and another baby of unidentifiable sex. All but for a girl given up for adoption were killed immediately after birth which took place in the bathtub.

Psychiatrist Dr. Jerome Gottlieb stated that Kalina remembers little about the birth and death of the five newborns. When talking about them “she shows no emotion. It’s like she is talking about someone else.” Alcoholic Kalina was drunk during the births. She pretended the children were not born alive. “At first she said she gave birth to stillborns,” Gottlieb said. “She referred to all five of these babies as fetuses, emotionally detaching herself.” “She could not explain why she chose to put the babies in a container and then in the closet,” he said. Kalina claimed she “preserved the remains of the dead babies to remind her of her shame for having the affair.”

On Oct. 26, 2010 Michele Kalina was charged with five murders. On Dec. 10 was arraigned on charges of homicide, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, reckless endangerment, and abuse of a corpse. She pled not guilty. But at trial she finally entered a plea of guilty and was sentenced by the Berks County judge to between 20 and 40 years in prison. At the trial Jeffrey Kalina testified “that he still loves his wife and plans to stay married to her.”

[Robert St. Estephe]

***

EXCERPT: “She [Michelle Kalina] meets the definition of a serial killer,” said Bowen-Hartung, who specializes in forensic psychology and is chairwoman of psychology and counseling at Alvernia. “It’s not uncommon for a serial killer to keep them as trophies as remembrance,” she said of remains. “The babies were so young. She did not allow maternal attachments. This is a really weird case.” [Holly Herman, “Mystery of Michele Kalina: Reading infant homicides baffle experts,” Reading Eagle (Pa.), Oct. 31, 2010]

***
Reading, Pennsylvania
Michelle Margaret Kalina, 44 at time of arrest. Some reports spell the name “Michelle.” “Michele,” however, is presumed to be the correct spelling.
Jeffrey Kalina – husband, 53 at time of discovery, but not the father of the murdered babies.
Elizabeth Kalina, 19-year-old daughter. Born 1991.
Andrew, Son – born with cerebral palsy, died at age 13, in 2000.
***
1985 – Kalinas married.
1992 – Kalinas “stopped being intimate with one another in 1992.”
1996 – Authorities suspect the 5 births occurred between 1996 and 2010. Began intermittent affair with unnamed paramour in 1996. “They ranged in gestational age from 32 to 43 weeks old when they died, according to prosecutors.” Three boys, and girl, and another baby whose sex couldn’t be identified.
Oct. 2003 – at St. Joseph’s Medical Center and gave that child up for adoption, according to court documents.
Jul. 2010 – skeletons discovered by Elizabeth Kalina (19?) in closet. “One body was encased in concrete,” Berks County District Attorney John Adams said. “It was a very bizarre case. The others were wrapped in garbage bags.”
Jul. 29, 2010 – “a forensic anthropologist determined the remains found on July 29 were human.”
Aug. 8, 2010 – “Reading police arrested Kalina Monday [Aug. 8] evening after a forensic anthropologist determined the remains found on July 29 were human.” MK held on $5 million bail, charged with two counts of abuse of a corpse.
Aug. 11, 2010 – Gombar said police and county detectives on Wednesday [Aug. 11, 2010] removed the third set of remains from the cement block found in a 2-by-3-foot container. That container was found July 29, the same day investigators found the other two containers with remains. “We conducted an X-ray and it revealed there was an unknown mass in the cement block,” Gombar said. “We knew something was in the cement block.”
Oct. 26, 2010 – charged with 5 murders (as “date of arrest” error elsewhere).
Oct. 28, 2010 – Kalina was supposed to appear in Berks County District Court Oct. 28, for a preliminary hearing on charges that she murdered five of the infants, but the hearing was postponed.
Dec. 14, 2010 – pleads not guilty. Michele Kalina, 44, was arraigned on charges of homicide, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, reckless endangerment, and abuse of a corpse.
Aug. 4, 2011 – pleads guilty. A Berks County judge sentenced her to between 20 and 40 years in prison.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

• • With Sarah, all I wanted was her to shut up. And one day, she did.

• • Even though I'm responsible, it's alright. She accepts
and is happy... She's a fairly good-natured baby, thank goodness - it saved her
from the fate of her siblings. I think she was warned. …another one like Sarah.
She saved her life by being different.

• • I feel like the worst mother on this earth, scared that
she'll leave me now like Sarah did. I knew I was short-tempered, and cruel,
sometimes, to her, and she left - with a bit of help.

Wikipedia: Kathleen
Megan Folbigg (née Donovan)
(born 14 June 1967) is an Australian serial child killer. Folbigg was convicted
of murdering her three infant children, eight-month-old Patrick Allen,
10-month-old Sarah Kathleen and 19-month-old Laura Elizabeth. Folbigg was also
convicted of the manslaughter of a fourth child, Caleb Gibson, aged 19 days.
The murders took place between 1991 and 1999, coming to an end only when her
husband discovered her personal diary, which detailed the killings.

Folbigg was originally sentenced to 40 years' jail, with a
non-parole period of 30 years, but on appeal this was reduced to 30 years, with
a non-parole period of 25 years. Folbigg maintains her innocence, claiming the
four children died from natural causes.

•
Early life

On 8 January 1969, Folbigg's biological father, Thomas John
Britton, murdered her mother, also named Kathleen, by stabbing her 24 times.
Following her father's arrest on the day after the murder, Folbigg was made a
ward of the state and placed into foster care with a couple.

On 18 July 1970, Folbigg was removed from the care of the
foster couple and placed into Bidura Children's Home.

In September 1970, Folbigg moved into a permanent foster
care placement. This arrangement lasted until she was a young adult. She left
school at the age of 15. In 1987 she married Craig Gibson Folbigg.

•
MURDERS:

1) Caleb Gibson

Caleb Gibson Folbigg was born a healthy baby on 1 February
1989. Caleb was known to breathe noisily and was diagnosed by a paediatrician
to be suffering from a mild case of laryngomalacia, something he would
eventually outgrow. On 20 February 1989, Folbigg put Caleb to sleep in a room
adjoining the room she shared with her husband. During the night, Caleb stirred
from midnight until 2 a.m. Found by Folbigg, the death was attributed to Cot
Death.

2) Patrick Allen

Patrick Allen Folbigg was born on 3 June 1990. Craig Folbigg
remained at home to help care for his wife and baby for three months after the
birth. On 18 October 1990, Folbigg put Patrick to bed. Craig Folbigg was
awakened by the sounds of his wife screaming and found her standing at the
baby's cot. He noticed the child wasn't breathing and attempted to revive him
by cardiopulmonary resuscitation. An ambulance was called and Patrick was taken
to hospital. Patrick would later be diagnosed to be suffering from epilepsy and
cortical blindness. On 18 February 1991, Folbigg telephoned her husband at work,
saying "It's happened again!"

3) Sarah Kathleen

The couple moved to Thornton in the City of Maitland. Sarah
Kathleen Folbigg was born on 14 October 1992, and died on 29 August 1993.

4) Laura Elizabeth

In 1996, the couple moved to Singleton. On 7 August 1997,
Laura Elizabeth Folbigg was born. On 27 February 1999, Laura died.

•
Trial

Folbigg's trial lasted seven weeks. The prosecution alleged
Folbigg murdered her four children by smothering them in periods of
frustration. During a jury replay of Folbigg's police interview, she attempted
to run from the court room.

The defence made the case that Kathleen did not kill or harm
her children and that Kathleen did not think that Craig was responsible either.
Although prosecution witnesses were concerned about the lack of prodromal
(early warning) symptoms in any of the children, the defence posed natural
explanations for the events such as Cot Death and, in the case of Laura's
death, myocarditis. The defence highlighted that Folbigg was a caring mother,
pointing to journal entries that showed the care and concern that she gave her
children. Some of Laura's acquaintances gave statements to investigators about
her caring nature.

The defence pointed out that there were no direct admissions
to the killings in Folbigg's journal entries, and that any entries indirectly
suggesting her responsibility could be chalked up to a typical grieving
mother's guilt. Folbigg appeared genuinely distraught to ambulance and police
responders to the scene. They pointed out that no physical evidence could link
Folbigg to murder; it was an entirely circumstantial case with very little
consensus among the scientific experts who testified at trial.

•
Verdict

On 21 May 2003, Folbigg was found guilty by the Supreme
Court of New South Wales jury of the following crimes: three counts of murder,
one count of manslaughter and one count of maliciously inflicting grievous
bodily harm. On 24 October 2003, Folbigg was sentenced to 40 years'
imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years.

•
Appeal

On 17 February 2005, the court reduced her sentence to 30
years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 25 years on appeal. Due to the
nature of her crimes, Folbigg resides in protective custody to prevent possible
violence by other inmates.

Laura Michelle Reese, alias “Jane Seana Cortez” and William
“Wild Bill” Dathan Holbert, 30, alias “William Adolfo Cortez,” were a serial
killer married couple who operated in central America, plying a racket based on
real estate in which they would rob and murder victims they contacted over real
estate deals.

They were featured on the American TV show “America’s Most
Wanted” which led to their being listed with Interpol as wanted fugitives on
July 24, 2016 at the request of Costa Rican law enforcement. They couple was
captured by the Nicaraguan army in Rio San Juan on July 26, 2010 as the
fugitives attempted to flee from a checkpoint.

Holbert and Reese were immediately deported to Panama to
face multiple charges of murder in that country. According to Officials in
Nicaragua Holbert and Reese were suspects in about 40 murders committed
throughout Mexico and Central American nations, Belize and Costa Rica, as well
as Panamá. The couple killed people in order to confiscate properties, personal
possessions and bank accounts.

In May 2012 the couple were given three separate trials for
five murders committed in Bocas del Toro, Panama. All five bodies were found
buried on the couple’s property. Each was shot in the head.

The bodies of Cheryl Lynn Hughes, 53, and Bo Icelar were
found on July 23, 2010, and on August 3, the corpses of Michael and Manchittha
Nan Brown, and their teenage son Watson. Bocas del Toro were dug up.

Assistant Prosecutor Angel Calderon stated that Holbert
“picked out his victims after making their acquaintance, knowing that nobody
would ask about them, he got rid of them.”

Holbert also
confessed “that he murdered his sixth victim, American lawyer Jeffery Arlan
Kline, in a boat in Panamanian waters. Holbert then went by sea to Costa
Rica where he buried Kline on a farm he owned there.” Holbert attempted to
protect Reese from being charged, claiming her was completely responsible for
the murders. Yet both were convicted and sentenced to prison. (reports of the
date of convictions and sentencing have not yet been located.)

EXCERPT: “William Dathan Holbert, aka “Wild Bill”, filed for
divorce from his wife Laura Michelle Reese after learning she was cheating on
him with another detainee. Laura met her lover in the women’s prison in Los
Algarrobos, Chiriquí, when he was performing work in the prison, according to
Holbert’s legal representative. Holbert asked the prison authorities to suspend
conjugal visits, which were held once a month with his wife.” [Don Winner,
“William Dathan Holbert, ‘Wild Bill’ Files For Divorce - Laura Michelle Reese
Was Cheating On Him, Panama-Guide.com, Mar. 26, 2013]

[Robert St. Estephe]

***

“William Dathan Holbert born September 12, 1979, also known
as Wild Bill, is a self-confessed murderer and Central American Cartel enforcer
from Hendersonville, North Carolina.”

***

2000 – couple move to Panama.

Ca Dec. 30, 2007 – Michael Watson Brown, murdered?

2010? – America’s Most Wanted website; “According to the
America’s Most Wanted article, William Dathan Holbert was involved in a similar
scheme of taking over a house in North Carolina.”

DATE? – Jeff Kline, American lawyer, murdered.

Jul. 23, 2010 – “The story broke Friday [Jul. 23, 2010] when
the prosecutor’s office in Boca de Toro confirmed that two bodies had been
found on property occupied by the pair. By that time they had crossed over into
Costa Rica.”Jul. 26, 2010 – “A man and woman sought for investigation of multiple
murders in Panamá seem to have spent several weeks in Costa Rica before they
tried to flee to Nicaragua Monday [Jul. 26, 2010] morning.”

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

On May 5, 2007, eighteen-year-oldJohannes Halbe, living in a small German
village of Wenden-Möllmicke went to the freezer to get a frozen pizza. There he
found by accident shopping bags containing terry towels inside of which were
the remains of three tiny babies. One of the packages’ wrapping included a
newspaper. It was dated “December 30, 1988.”

The Halbes have three living children besides Johannes:
Stefanie, 23 at that time, and Sebastian. They and their father Thomas said
they had been unaware of the pregnancies.

Monika explained the reason she kept the three baby corpses years
at home in her freezer stating: “I wanted the kids always to be near me.”

At the time of the trial Halbe was undergoing voluntary
psychiatric treatment at a guarded facility.

Judge Wolfgang Muenker when sentencing Moonika Halbe, related
biographical details to demonstrate his reasoning for sentencing. She was the
youngest of eight children, trained as a dental assistant but gave up work
after being bullied. Her first sexual relations were “not consensual,” he
noted. He said that she suffered from “an irrational fear of doctors and
especially of gynaecological examinations.”

On December 1, 2008, Monika Halbe, 44, was found guilty by
the Siegen state court of killing two of her
babies. She was sentenced to four years and three months. The first death
ineligible for prosecution due to statute of limitations.

[Robert St. Estephe]

***

Home in Wenden-Möllmicke, a village with 1650 inhabitants
Sauerland, Germany.

Ca Dec. 30, 1988 – newborn #2, girl, murdered, “delivered in
the family bathroom, was suffocated by being held close for several minutes.”

1990 – Johannes, allowed to live (18 at time of discovery).

2004 – newborn #3, girl, murdered, drowned.

May 5, 2007 – discovery by son Johnnes (18).

Dec. 1, 2008 – Monika Halbe, 44, found guilty by the Siegen court of killing two of her babies (due to
statute of limitations) and stashing their corpses in the family’s freezer;
sentenced to four years and three months. Siegen state court. Wolfgang Muenker,
presiding judge.